Daily Archives: September 9, 2006

Coggshall Geese — Exterminate?

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This is a local story that really only affects people from Fitchburg and our surrounding communities, and of those the subset of folks who visit Coggshall Park.  Coggshall's most well known feature is Mirror Lake, a man made pond which is inhabited by fish, turtles, frogs, ducks, swans, and geese.  And it is apparently the last of those which are becoming a problem according to one local man…

On September 5'th a local resident approached the Fitchburg Parks Commission and proposed culling the goose population of Coggshall with a shotgun.

From Cooked Geese? (Twin Cities Blogs — Sentinel & Enterprise):

…The resident, Michael Donnelly, proposed his plan at the Parks Commission meeting Tuesday in a story first reported in the Sentinel & Enterprise, saying he would use a shotgun to kill the geese, and would later eat the meat.

Donnelly, a Conservation Commission member, said he is a wildlife enthusiast and that this is a well-established way to keep a goose population healthy.

If the number of geese in the park grows unchecked, the droppings they produce could pose a health risk to both them and the public, he said.

“I love them, but I recognize for the good of the many, we need to take a few,” Donnelly said during the meeting at City Hall.

There are 52 geese living on Mirror Lake at Coggshall Park, according to Donnelly.

But according to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, there should only be around a dozen, he said…

Hmm.  I recognize that wildlife management in populated areas sometimes requires culling, but I'm not sure what I think of this proposal.

*

It turns out I know a lot of “wildlife enthusiasts.”  In fact, I am one myself. None of the wildlife enthusiasts I know own shotguns or shoot animals.

Generally, we refer to people who shoot animals as “hunters”.  I have no problem with hunters doing their thing, but let's not be euphemistic okay?

Should one local “wildlife enthusiast”* get dozens of free goose dinners in the process?  Would the man who proposed this measure be as enthusiastic if the culling were handled by the city or the state and didn't involve him?

There are plenty of homeless and/or needy people in our communities who could benefit from free goose dinners if such culling were to take place.  Seems to me that would be a better use of the meat.

I'm also a little skeptical of the supposed population of 52 geese.  I've visited Coggshall many times, and though I recall seeing a number of canada geese, I don't remember ever seeing that many animals.  If memory serves the geese were outnumbered by ducks, unless things have changed in the last year… it's been awhile since I was able to visit Mirror Lake.

I've had my own experiences with the Parks Commission and the people who are on it have always struck me as good, thoughtful, people.  I'm sure that whatever decision they make, they will do the necesary legwork and research to make sure it is appropriate.

It's an interesting bit of news either way.

Unbecoming Levity Gets Floaties

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A floating sidebar is just a demarcated region of text that the rest of the article flows around.  I'm experimenting with CSS classes to allow me to quickly insert floating sidebars on the left or the right…

Like this one. Can you see this?

I'm experimenting with floating sidebars* in blog articles.  If it works out okay and is legible in your browser let me know.  Do you see the “floatie” on the right?  Does it look okay to you or does it not render correctly?  I'm all ears.  Lemme know!

I'm a bit flummoxed because the BlogHarbor editor doesn't render things with my stylesheet if I use CSS classes, it only shows it correctly if I use the “style” attribute of the tag.  For the effect shown here I used the following HTML:

<DIV class=rightFloatie><DIV class=floatieInset>*</DIV>A floating sidebar is just a demarcated region of text that the rest of the article flows around.&nbsp; I'm experimenting with CSS classes to allow me to quickly insert floating sidebars on the left or the right…<BR><BR>Like this one. Can you see this?</DIV>

<P>I'm experimenting with floating sidebars<SPAN class=floatieNote>*</SPAN> in blog articles.&nbsp; If it works out okay and is legible in your browser let me know.&nbsp; Do you see the “floatie” on the right?&nbsp; Does it look okay to you or does it not render correctly?&nbsp; I'm all ears.&nbsp; Lemme know!</P>

And here is the CSS for the three classes rightFloatie, floatieInset, and floatieNote:

.rightFloatie {
    float: right;
    margin-left: 16px;
    width: 225px;
    border: #999 1px dotted;
    padding: 8px;
    background-color: #f9f9ff;
    color: #3366ff;
    font-size: 8pt;
    font-style: italic;
    font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
    text-align: justify;
} 
.floatieInset {
    float: left;
    margin-bottom: 1px;
    margin-right: 1px;
    font-size: large;
    font-weight: bold;
}
.floatieNote {
    font-size: medium;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #3366ff;
    font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
}

The “.rightFloatie” (and matching “.leftFloatie”, not shown) are what make the floating sidebar itself.  The “.floatieInset” is for the asterisk inside the sidebar.  This makes the asterisk BIG and lets the remaining text inside the sidebar flow around it.  You don't really need an inset, I just like the way it looks.  Finally “.floatieNote” is for the asterisk in the main body of the article.  Using these insets I could, for example, have numbered notes and so forth.  Right now the width is hardcoded at 225 pixels for the sidebar, I may experiment with other widths in the future, but for now it serves well enough.

I've already future posted an article for tomorrow morning which contains a “floatie”.  Hope it's readable!